I
I 44 . ART OF COPPERSMITHING.
The strength of the material may he governed by the price at
which it is desired to sell the finished articles, but the usual weight
! was 8, 9 and 10 pound plate for the sides of each size respectively
and 10, ii and 12 pound for the bottoms. This difference would seem
due to a desire to make the bottom stronger, but is really on account
[ of the thickness of the body, which is increased in the thickness
|, while razing it in to suit the size of bottom.
j; We will now proceed with the work and finish up a 9-inch bowl.
The side is cut, according to the above table, 28 inches long and 4
inches wide. Smooth the burrs off with a file and then thin the end
! edges with a hammer (Fig. 44) on a side-stake (Fig 45) in the floor-
block. After thinning clean the edges if necessary with sand-paper;
now cramp it with the snips at one end as far as the scarf made with
the hammer, which should be about 3-16 inch (Fig. 46). Form it round
as in Fig. 47, then close the cramps down and jar a little borax and
water through the joint and charge it with fine spelter, following the
; zigzag- line of the cramps. (It is well to wash and mix the solder
with borax and water a few days before.) Next dry it slowly over
the fire, after which, holding it with a suitable pair ot tongs, make it
' hot enough at the back to annul any spring and to assist to heat the
copper; then turn the seam to the fire, and with a brisk blast from
the bellows run the solder down the joint. When cool, see that the
seam is full and perfect. Now file up and trim the joint on the out-
* side and inside, taking off any sharp corners or knobs of spelter.
';5 When smooth take it to a side-stake (Fig. 45) and knock down the
1 \ seam, making it the same thickness as the other part of the sheet,
,i i and then anneal. Now take a racer and mark around the middle of
,» the body, and wrinkle it at one end as far as the middle (Fig. 48).
1 Then take it to the block, and on. a long head in a tea-kettle shank or
! ! on the point of the side-stake raze in a course with a mallet or light
1 f razing hammer (Fig. 49) until the diameter of the body at the end is
j , reduced to within aboutfive-eigbtths of the size of the bottom. Next
,!) ! " stag" it in, as shown in Fig. 50, a shade smaller than the bottom.
| | Thin the edge of the part turned on a suitable bullet-stake (Fig. 51),
||; also the edge of the bottom and cramp it, as in Fig. 50, then lift each.
j j alternate cramp and put the bottom in from the inside. Close down
I I the cramps on a bottom-stake with a hammer, and popple the bottom
•;S j (which is done by a few blows of a hammer on a bottom-stake in the
jf j center to draw it a little), and then spring the bottom in and out to